The present invention relates to a liquid ejection apparatus and a method for flushing a liquid ejection apparatus.
An inkjet printer (hereafter simply as a “printer”) is widely known as a liquid ejection apparatus for ejecting liquid toward a target. The printer has a recording head (a liquid ejection head) mounted on a carriage, which reciprocates. Ink is supplied to the recording head and ejected from nozzles of the recording head. In this way, the printer performs printing on a recording medium, which serves as a target. However, the printer may have the following problem. The ink solvent evaporates through the nozzles of the recording head. This increases the viscosity of the ink or solidifies the ink. As a result, the nozzles become clogged, and printing failures occur.
To solve this problem, the printer typically performs a flushing operation for forcibly ejecting the ink in the nozzles (refer, for example, to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-52374) irrespective of the ejection toward the target. The flushing operation is performed after the carriage, on which the recording head is mounted, moves to a capping unit (cleaning mechanism) or an ink reception portion used exclusively for flushing. The capping unit and the ink reception portion are arranged in a non-print area. The flushing operation is performed whenever a predetermined time (e.g., twenty seconds) elapses so that the ink in the nozzles does not increase viscosity or does not solidify.
However, the non-print area in which the capping unit and the ink reception portion that perform the above-described flushing are distanced from a print area in which paper is arranged. To perform flushing during printing, the carriage (and the recording head) must be moved from the print area to the non-print area. Such movement of the carriage may prolong the printing process time. This may lower the printing efficiency.